BIONICLE: The Doomed Toa
by PakariNation99
Summary: On the lonely and quiet island of Una-Nui, the Matoran Ghar desires greatness. Upon the discovery of four Toa-Stone, Ghar and his friends are transformed into the island's one and only hope. However, their fortune would soon run out. Follow the adventures the Doomed Toa, as they battle evil and discover their destiny.
1. Act 1 Chapter 1

I stare down from the cliff side, focusing my vision on the tiny village below. Little miniature forms scuttle around through the thin, dirt streets. I can see shades of green, blue, black, red, white, and brown. Here on this island, the Matoran are not seperated as they are in the far-away northern islands I've heard stories about. We all stick together, one village, on people. Here on Una-Nui, we Matoran don't have the luxury of being selfish.

But then again, why should I say that? I am all the time.

There are so many talented individuals on this island. Take my friends, for example:

I see one red armored being below. That's Novan, a Ta-Matoran hot head. He's been there for me for a long time. We've been through Karzahni and back together. What's he good at? He's a leader, and an outstanding one at that. Give Novan a simple task and he'll go above and beyond with it.

I switch my gaze to the other side of the village. A little hut stands out from the rest; all decorated with little trinkets, weapon bits, Rahi bones, and a small trail of smoke from the inside, finding its way into the temperate wind of the island. Just as I wonder what's going on in there, a small Ko-Matoran comes running out of the door, hysteric and off the walls. And then the hut catches a small flame. Oh, Ari. Your constant tinkering and experiments never seem to go the way you plan, do they? But that's what you do-you...try to make things.

I have to laugh as the local Turaga comes hobbling over, yelling at poor Ari for his mishap. While I was intrigued, I had to stare off at the beach, at the farther end of the village. I see blue armored Ga-Matoran fishing, throwing nets and making boats. I search around for one specific individual, but...

"Ghar!"

...There she is.

"Ghar!" she says, slightly out of breath from the trek up the cliff side. "What are you doing here?"

"Oh, hey Liala," I say in reply. "The usual. Just, uh, getting my head clear. Why did you come up here?"

"Well, I didn't see you around. I mean, usually you're sitting around near the beach..."

You couldn't tell due to the black, dormant Kanohi Pakari on my face, but my I flushed at that notion, partly from embarrassment, partly from surprise. _How could she see me?_ I thought.

"Mm, yea... um, just getting a change from the mundane, I guess."

"You know, you can't spend your whole life up here."

"Don't see a problem with it!"

"What do you mean? You can't be serious about this again, Ghar!"

And there she goes again. Liala's specialty: asking annoying questions to try and help people feel better. Thing is, it usually works. Usually. You can call me the "special patient", since I can never seem to get over my "problem".

Sighing, Liala presses me, placing her hand on my shoulder.

"Do you want to go through it again," she asks in that some what annoying, but also kind of appealing voice of hers.

I sigh. I know what's coming.

"Fine. It's just...everyone else has something about them that makes them unique. And me, well...everything I do just...turns into Muaka litter."

"Oh, you know that's not true, Ghar!" Liala tells me, "You know that you'll find something eventually!"

Somehow, I believed her as always. For a split second.

"I know, it's just, I don't want to do any old thing... I want to do something great. I don't know, something heroic, brave, cool!"

"That sounds like a complicated wish, Ghar."

"I know."

She got up from where we sat. A part of me was glad she was going so I could be alone again, but another part of me wished she would stay.

"I've got to get back to work, Ghar. Maybe you should come back to the village, too," she says.

"I'll be there in a minute," I lie. I'll be up here all day.

She starts the journey back down slowly. I try not to, but something makes me look back over my shoulder to see her. She's already gone. I stare again at the village, the sun dropping below the waters of the endless ocean surrounding Una-Nui. The words still ring in by ears: _A complicated wish_...

My name is Ghar. I am a Toa. For years I wanted to be something great, and now my complicated wish has come true. Thanks to some mysterious stones, my friends and I now possess powers beyond our wildest dreams. We are charged with protecting the island's Matoran from whatever threat that may come. This is our destiny.

It used to be a quiet day on the small island of Una-Nui. The breeze blew lightly by, the sun beamed down on the rocky surface, and waves crashed on the edge of the protodermis seas. That was, until a big Kikanalo stampede came by. I mean a massive one.

"It's not going to be easy," said Novan, Toa of Fire, our team's leader. "Not in the entire history of the island has a Kikanalo herd ever been stopped."

"Well, what do you suggest we do? Move the village?" questioned Liala, Toa of Water, and the team's resident warrior.

"What kind of idea is that? To do that, we would need an impossible amount of force, not to mention about a million thrusters to keep it up long enough. I recommend we divert the herd towards the mountain," rebutted Ari, Toa of Ice, an inventor and the brains of the operation.

"I don't think she meant it that literally, Ari," said I, Ghar, the Toa of Earth. What do I do? Well, I make things go boom and do all the heavy lifting.

"We're wasting time thinking about it. We need to act fast," said Novan. From the looks of his eyes beneath his crimson mask, I could tell what was about to happen. You see, Novan has these moments where he thinks very intently, and right now was one of them. Sure enough:

"Follow me!" he announced loudly, running off without a care down the cliff face we were on. "What's up with him?" asked Ari. "He's a got a plan," replied Liala, using her powers over water to surf a wave down to Novan. "And from the looks of it a good one," I said, and then proceeded to avalanche my way down using my powers over earth. "Wa? Wait FOR ME!" I could hear Ari fumble, and he began to clumsily use his ice powers to slide down the cliff.

By some mysterious instinct, we all fell into synch as we reached the bottom of the cliff, somehow sensing Novan's plan as if he had narrated it times over. I never quite knew how we did it, and it always seemed sort of reckless, but without speaking a word each of us knew what to do. I loaded my specially designed elemental bolt into my quakebow, courtesy of Ari, and aimed. A moment later, I pulled the trigger, launching a charged beam filled with my powers at a rocky spot on the ground near the village. A few seconds after, a chasm opened up in the ground, and Novan and Liala leaped into action. Using her aqua halberd to channel her elemental energy, Liala focused a jet stream of powered water onto the edge of the chasm, eroding away the edge of it to form a path way. Novan did the same, melting away sediment to widen Liala's track. Time was running out, however. Ari was creating ice walls to guide the Kikanalo towards the moat path, but they were charging through with immense power. "Guys, I can't really keep this up much longer!" he screamed down to the three of us.

"Just keep digging!" Novan yelled back to Liala. This one was going to be close. I could see groups of Matoran in the village, scrambling to get out of the way of impending destruction. Ari suddenly came crashing to where I stood, saying, "Get ready, here they come!" Summoning all my strength, I created a massive earth wall to protect the village from where the Kikanalo were charging in, and in response the lead beast swerved into the chasm. The stampede quickly caught up to Liala and Novan, but they continued to dig the path away from the village. "Almost there!" Liala said, the strain beginning to reach her. With a final grunt, Novan released a large fire burst down towards the mountain on the far side of the village, and the Kikanalo raced by them in a massive cloud of dust.

Moments later, Ari and I ran to the site where we last saw our friends. Using the lenses on his mask, Ari scanned the area that was shrouded in clouds of smoke and sand. "I found them," he said, running towards them. I followed, and then came upon the fire and water Toa. "Are you guys okay?" Ari questioned, but he was met with laughter from Novan and Liala.

"Well done, sister!" said Novan in a proud voice.

"Not too bad yourself, brother!" Liala answered.

"Holy Mata-Nui," exclaimed I, "I thought you guys got trampled or something!"

"A little dusty on the armor, but nothing broken!" replied Novan, in his usual joking manner.

"PRAISE THE TOA! ALL HAIL TO WARRIORS OF UNA-NUI!" were the cries that came from the Matoran of the village suddenly. "Well, what do you know, they're all thanking us for saving their lives," said Ari. "It's what we're here to do," said Novan. "We are Toa, and it is our destiny to protect our home."

There was no arguing with that. I looked out to the crowd of small beings in the distance. They were all cheering for us, and, maybe selfishly, for me. I was finally a part of something great. This had to be my destiny. As we all walked back to the village to see to the Matoran and the collateral damage around their homes, I noticed out of the corner of my eye a black and white being walking slowly out of a hut. He carried a pointed staff and wore a white robe that had begun to brown from the dusty conditions on the island. Turaga Matao, our island's elder, stared with pondering orange eyes through his icy white and silver mask at me. Then, he slowly retreated like the waves back into his hut. I wondered why he hadn't come back out to aid the Matoran, but that thought was lost from my mind as my friends and I enjoyed the praise of the Matoran in the village.


	2. Act 1 Chapter 2

Una-Nui at night is almost the same as it is in the day. It's still small, dry, and scarce, but there's this new kind of tranquility surrounding the shores when you look out at the village and see the warm red glow of fire lights and the smoke of many torches rising up to join the clouds above, barely visible. The stars above shine brilliantly, and as I walk through the huts I can hear Matoran discussing their meaning, tracking their paths, looking for omens of a better future.

Intrigued by the conversations, I look up myself, and I see the large twin moons, as well as dots of white, blue, and a single red one far off by the horizon. Then I heard something interesting: a Ko-Matoran was discussing with an Onu-Matoran about the fabled Spirit Stars, brilliant lights in the sky that signify the life of a Toa, the essence of heroes. Excited by this prospect, I look up to search for my own and my team mates'. After a while I stopped looking...the stars shown no brighter than they did before our transformation.

I walk back from the beaches to the village square, where a bonfire is accompanied by music and dance and all sorts of celebration. This didn't happen very often before my friends and I became the island's protectors, but tonight was a special occasion. Not only were they praising our saving the village from the Kikanalo earlier today, but they were also celebrating the end of the migratory season, where many of the more dangerous Rahi make their way from one edge of the island to the other. Novan and Ari had been tracking all sorts of herds since last season, and today marked the last of them to move. Now the village would be safe for at least another few months.

Although the village square isn't that large, I still had trouble locating Novan and the others through the fire and crowds of dancing Matoran. _Wish I had Ari's mask_ , I thought to myself as I wandered around the square and its festivities. _But, hold on_...I see something out of the corner of my eye. It looked long and black, and appeared to have a tail...it looked like it was prowling. I turn my full gaze over to where I saw the creature, but in the darkness I could see nothing. I think nothing of it and move on again to finding the other Toa.

Eventually I come upon a larger hut than the others, an orange glow pouring out from the windows and open door frame. From inside, soft voices leak out. I approach the door and look inside, surprised to find Novan and Liala inside with Turaga Matao. Matao was engaging them in conversation about something, speaking words I could not make out. Actually, even engaging anyone in conversation for more than a few minutes is out of character for him. I stand in the doorway in hesitation, not wanting to interrupt anything important the Turaga might say, but yet I didn't feel easy about going back outside either...it felt like there were eyes on me or something. It didn't take long for Liala to look up and notice me, Novan soon after, making them lose their focus on whatever it was Matao was telling them. In mid-sentence Matao uttered some words of confusion and looked back, spotting me.

"Ah, Toa Ghar," said the Turaga in his low, icy voice. "How...nice of you to drop by."

"It's a pleasure, Turaga," I reply. "I was simply looking for the others, but I can see that you appear to be busy, so I'll just-"

I was making my way out the door when Liala cut me off by saying, "Oh, don't mind that, Ghar. Matao was just offering his advice on how to better handle any Rahi that may come by next season."

"You were? That doesn't seem like you, Turaga, offering up your...past experience," I say, looking down at the elder as he began to walk to other side of the hut, rearranging some items.

"I was a Toa once, you know," he replied. "Certainly a more efficient one than, well, whatever you call that fancy stunt earlier," he quips back, laughing to himself. "I would have just frozen them all and thawed them out on the other side of the island in a pen."

"Although I respect your opinions, I wouldn't call showing restraint and compassion a lack of efficiency, Turaga," said Novan. Looking at me he said, "In fact, I think we handled it pretty well!"

We both smile and then proceeded to bump fists, our usual sign of brotherly respect.

"You are still inexperienced," replied Matao, this time his voice becoming more directed and his tone shifting to a more serious one. "You must learn that sometimes showing compassion and not making the tough call can get you killed." He looked out the window towards the shore as he said this, his expression changing from his usual icy calmness to a grim look of regret and anger. "Experience has shown me that the less willing you are to realize that being a Toa is not all fun and games the longer you can live to become...well an old wise one like me."

I could tell from his half somber half sarcastic demeanor and the looks behind my fellow Toa's masks that there was some dissonance in Matao that he didn't wish to fully disclose. Now, however, wasn't the time to question him about it. I was just about to offer that my friends and I leave when something large and black leapt through the window onto Matao, knocking him into a corner and circling around the room at amazing speeds, knocking Liala, Novan, and myself to the ground. Just as fast as it had charged in, the creature that I must have spotted earlier speeded out the door, dragging Matao a few feet before ripping free his cloak and running off into the distance. The others and I made it out to see the thing disappear into the darkness ahead, remnants of the Turaga's cloak dotting its path. "What the Karzahni was that?" Novan asked, all of us out of breath and shocked at the sudden appearance of the creature.

"A Kavinika," answered Liala. "Dangerous things...aggressive. Where there's one, others follow. We've got to go after it," she insisted, helping Matao to his feet. "A Rahi like that shouldn't be here after the migratory season ends, and who knows what it may be going back to..."

"We can't go all at once, it's too fast and too many of us will scare it off," Novan replied, beginning to take command of the situation. "Liala, you and Ghar go after it; I'll take Matao back and look for Ari. If there are more of them out here, we need to be prepared to defend the Matoran."

"Right, let's go!" I said, running out into the black unknown, Liala falling into step with me. Behind us, Novan carries Matao back into the heart of the village. With any luck he can make it back in time before any more of the Kavinika show up. I could only hope that what we find wouldn't be just as dangerous...


	3. Act 1 Chapter 3

Speeding forward, I can see nothing but whatever happened to by flying in front of my face. Mostly all I can hear are the dead hums of the night and the heavy breaths of me and my friend Liala as we ran through the darkness. Every so often I have to whip my arms in front of me to block an oncoming tree branch, the thick bark scratching my pitch black armor. _How long has it been?_ I think to myself. For all I knew it could have been minutes, or even hours. Despite the time frame, the goal was still engrained into my mind: Liala and I were chasing a dangerous Rahi through the woods, and it was up to us to figure out what it was doing here.

We continue to run for minutes, but eventually we had to stop to catch our breath. Despite being mostly mechanical beings, we still had organic lungs to fill and muscles to rest. Liala was breathing heavily a few feet from my side, and I was near crouching on the ground.

"Why...do we have...to run again?" I asked the water Toa through gasps for air. "And why...did I have to go? Novan knows I'm...bad at running..."

"Well, maybe...if you hadn't spent as much time on those hill tops...as a Matoran...you could handle a bit more," Liala joked back.

I began to stand up again, and as I did muttered, "Hey, it's not my fault that I-"

"Quiet!" Liala was looking out into the trees, her head slightly cocked to one side to listen more intently.

"What is it? Do you see-?"

"Shh!"

Annoyed by her interjections, I look out to the black unknown myself. I had heard it said that Onu-Matoran from other lands preferred living underground and so had eyes better suited for night, but here on Una-Nui they did no such thing. Because of this I had to squint hard to make out the shapes of the forest around us. As I was looking, Liala lightly touched my shoulder. Looking up, I saw she was still staring out to the darkness, but she was pointing at something beyond. I understood her signal, and slowly turned my head to look in the direction she indicated.

There, just behind some bushes, was a pair of softly glowing blue eyes. They were angled and bestial, but behind them I could sense a faint hint of fear towards us. Liala and I locked eyes with the creature for a few moments.

The Kavinika were one of the multiple dangerous Rahi that inhabited Una-Nui. Long had their nightly howls disturbed the sleep of the village Matoran, but in their danger there was also an appalling sense of majesty and wonder. Those blue eyes, the same hue as the midday sky, did not seem natural. In fact, this individual's behavior wasn't anywhere near natural. Normally the Kavinika hunt just before the migratory season then disappear afterwards until the following year. But now, this one had stayed behind, and as Liala had earlier pointed out, where one was, the others most likely followed...it was unnervingly strange.

My thoughts were broken when the Rahi began to growl in a low tone. When it did so, a soft glow began to emit from Liala's mask. With a surprised look in her eyes, she began to walk slowly towards the creature. I was surprised when it neither moved closer to attack or farther into the bushes to run again. There was a strange connection occurring between the two. Liala had always been more in touch with the wildlife on the island, but I had never witnessed something like this.

Eventually Liala got to close, and the Kavinika ran off again, the glowing parts of its body trailing away into the night at breakneck speed. Liala's mask then dimmed out again, leaving us both in awe of whatever had just occurred.

"Liala? What just happened there?" I asked quietly.

When she replied it was as if she were in disbelief, "It...I think it...talked to me."

"Seriously? You aren't going crazy are you?"

"No, not in that way...it must be my mask power. The Kanohi Rau, the Great Mask of Translation. I've used it only a couple of times, but this one was...different. I've never heard such intelligence from anything but the Kikanalo, but this one sounded...like it needed our help."

"What would a Rahi need our help for? These things can hunt and have done plenty of damage. The whole situation seems odd...Didn't you once try to use your mask power with a Kavinika before? Why didn't one say anything then?"

"They never had anything to say until now..."

We stood in an uncomfortable silence for a moment, and then I said, "We need to follow it again. If there are more out there that are as violent as that one was with Turaga Matao, the village could be in serious trouble." She nodded in agreement, obviously still struck by her encounter, but soon after she took off running. I followed her and again we resumed our pursuit.

It wasn't long until we heard the howls. Liala activated her mask power again, using the voices of the Kavinika to guide us to where they were located. As we weaved through ever thickening brush, the howls grew louder and more frequent. We came to a dense wall of foliage, and as Liala rushed ahead I saw her quickly fall downwards. In a split second I caught her just as she was about to tumble down a cliff face. Hoisting her back to solid ground, we look out and find ourselves on the edge of a large crater, the likes of which neither of us or any of the other Toa had even seen here before.

I touched the ground and concentrated. I felt the power of the earth beneath my fingers and could tell that this crater was relatively new, within the last Rahi migratory season. Whatever had made this, it wasn't a villager, or any of the Toa.

"What is it, Ghar?" Liala asked me. "What can you feel?"

"Well," I say, rising from my perch, "it's not Matoran made. This definitely screams Rahi to me."

"Are you sure? Look at the marking on the side," Liala remarked. "They look like tools any villager could have crafted."

"There's no way that could be, the patterns of extra soil fit the bill for any number of tunneling Rahi. A Blade Burrower, a stone rat, a Rock Raptor, a cave mole... they all have similar digging marks."

"But how can you be so sure?" Liala questioned.

"Sister, if there's one thing I know, it's dirt." I jabbed at myself.

I hopped down the edge of the cliff and began to rock slide my way down to its center, where a smoking cave entrance lay. As I did, the ground underneath Liala became unstable and caved in, forcing her to topple a few feet before catching herself on a water stream. When we landed, she looked at me with some slight annoyance in her eye. "Graceful and quite," she sarcastically remarked. "Hey, I'm the one who breaks stuff, you're the stealthy one," I replied back. After the moment of tension relief, we stared down into the cavern. Of course, it was dark, but inside Liala could sense a presence of some Rahi. All I could sense was more dirt.

We began our trip into the cave, once more into the unknown. _Lots of this tonight isn't there_ , I thought. The tunnel twisted and turned deep into the ground. The light of the twin moons and stars outside faded away behind us until there was just black and the soft light from our eyes and heartlights. We traveled for what felt like forever, until we came upon a yellow light at the end of the corridor. We ran toward the beacon and stopped dead in our tracks as we witnessed where we were.

In front of us was a massive cavern, each rocky side dotted with lava falls and ridges. A pool of super heated magma bubbled at our feet all the way to the opposite end of the cave, and along the walls were dozens of other entrances all leading to what seemed to be equally long tunnels as the one we had come through. Above, the stars and moons were clearly visible, and the mouth of what had to be Una-Nui's largest volcano became a window to the world above. In the center of the chamber there was a massive round stone with rocks piled all around it. On the walls, dozens of different Rahi hung, climbed, crawled, and flew around, whizzing past our faces. Each had the same cold look in their eye with the hint of desperation behind them as the Kavinika we were following. Despite all that was around us, our eyes were fixated on one thing in the center, lying on the piled rocks. Red eyes widened at the sight of us, the outsiders, and a massive shadowy form rose above us. As it rose from its sleep there was a deep, growling voice...

"You should not have come. You do not belong here. We will drive you out."

I didn't need to wear a Great Mask of Translation to understand what the beast said; it had spoken Matoran on its own. All the eyes of the Rahi were gazing at us now, mimicking the central figure's own, and at that moment I knew we were in for something far beyond what we could comprehend...


End file.
